It sounds bizarre but I want to try it.
In 20 years or less this will sound as stupid as if some “innovator” of the early automobile days had added a galloping motion to car seats or a lever you could pull to dump fake manure in the middle of the road.
Look, I really enjoy driving a car with a manual transmission, and I will probably own one until they are as expensive to own as a horse is currenrly. But I can’t for the life of me imagine why someone would take a system that has none of the disadvantages of a manual transmission system, and… add them back in a completely superficial way for some reason.
Some people need assisted aids to help them transition. If this is fun for them then let them have it. It would be not much different than an expensive driving rig for Forza or Asseto Corsa.
I could see this being very useful, as electric motors are usually less efficient at higher speed and they generate more heat (more cooling required). So using a transmission that enables lower motor rpm at highway speeds could potentially mean longer highway range, if the transmission is light and efficient enough of course
Except that it doesn’t. The actual gear ratio is determined by the software for optimal performance and the shifting merely controls the car audio system and modulates the electric motors to jolt or regeneratively brake to simulate the drag of a physical transmission box. If anything, the motors will be acting in a non-efficient way to simulate the effects of non-optimal manual transmission hijinks, as tested by the author (much to his enjoyment).
Personally, I disabled the “V8 sound” Ford stupidly pipes into the cab of its V6 trucks. I bought the thing because the cab is so quite, not so I could get fake engine noise to make my penis appear larger. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not the experience I’m looking for in an automobile. To each his or her own. More than 99% of the time I want a vehicle where I put in the destination and then ignore it for the rest of my trip. I get the appeal - I learned on a stick and I’m cheap enough that I rent manual cars overseas - I just don’t share the need for it; at least not enough to pay extra to have it as a cosmetic add on.
So many people who either didn’t read the article, or didn’t understand it.
